The campaign of Troy Downing, a Republican seeking his party's U.S. Senate nomination, issued a release Wednesday calling the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks "deep state" and claiming the agency conducted a "witch hunt" against him.

Deep state is a term that became popular on conservative websites such as Breitbart during the 2016 presidential race to refer to career employees secretly working within government to manipulate policy and undermine political enemies.

"It's unfortunate the liberal Montana FWP deep state is on a witch hunt," The Downing campaign said.

The release came in response to a story from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle last week detailing records from an FWP investigation into Downing's alleged hunting violations.

The Chronicle has reported that Downing, who is hoping to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, was charged with seven misdemeanor violations for buying or applying for resident hunting licenses as a non-resident. He was also cited twice for transferring a license and assisting an unqualified applicant.

The records were ordered unsealed by Gallatin County District Court Judge John Brown in October. Downing's next date in court is Nov. 15 for an omnibus hearing, the Chronicle reported.

Downing's statement, sent by campaign manager Kevin Gardner, also criticized Brown, calling him a "Democrat" even though judicial positions are nonpartisan.

"It's no surprise that a Democrat judge, appointed by Democrat Gov. Schweitzer would release details of this case before Troy is afforded due process in the court of law," the release said.

The release of the records was requested by the Gallatin County Attorney's Office.

Brown was appointed by a Democratic governor to fill a vacancy on the bench. He has since run for retention in a nonpartisan election.

Downing called the judge's actions "politically motivated tactics."

"This is nothing more than an orchestrated attack on a combat veteran by Senator Tester's allies who are desperate to stay in power,'' Downing's campaign said. "These moves are obviously politically motivated and makes a mockery of the judicial process.''

The Chronicle reported the investigation was started by the Montana Department of Revenue, which was asked by FWP to see if Downing qualified as a resident for hunting licenses. According to the documents, Downing filed income taxes as a non-resident in 2013 and 2014 but changed to a full-time resident by 2015.

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The release said that Downing's time in the Air Force after 9/11 meant he traveled and did not live in Montana full-time until he was honorably discharged in 2009. In the release, Downing said he bought land in Montana in 2000 and in a radio interview Wednesday morning said over the last decade he’s had businesses in 35 states and “been on the road a lot.”

"Troy spends tens of thousands of dollars to support our wounded warriors in fishing trips in Montana, and, he overpays by tens of thousands of dollars to fish and hunt to support other charities here in Montana. It makes no sense that he would try to skirt a small difference in a resident vs non-resident license in Montana," the release read.

Downing's statement also praised Republican President Donald Trump, who Downing had criticized before the president won Montana by 20 percent a year ago.

Before the election, Downing said on Twitter the then-candidate wasn't electable and that Trump "cracks me up." He also used the hashtag #NeverTrumpNeverHillary and at one point called Trump "either a liar or an idiot," according to The Hill. Downing's personal Twitter account has since been made private.

Last week, Downing tweeted from his campaign account a photo of him with Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, the president's sons who were visiting Montana.

In the photo, Downing wore a red Make America Great Again hat, a trademark of the Trump campaign, while Trump's sons wore Downing campaign hats.

Matt Rosendale, one of several Republicans running in the Senate primary, also recently touted his ties to the administration, saying he had been endorsed by Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Trump who was forced out of the administration earlier this year and is now running Breitbart.

Other candidates include former Billings judge Russ Fagg, state senator and doctor Albert Olszewski, Ron Murray of Belgrade and James Dean of Havre, whose wife is running against Tester in the Democratic primary.

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(21) comments

I just found out that Troy Downing received a continuance on his 9 hunting license violations. The date is now January 3rd. Troy is still running TV ads so he must be pretty confident he will get off on these charges. If they are true charges he has a major problem and he won't win. I look forward to Montana hosting several town forums for the candidates so people can ask all of them questions. Congress seems to be having numerous problems so we really do need many changes.

Let's get back to the main issue of the article and that is about Troy Downing. When he goes to court the judge will make a decision on Mr. Downings' License violations. If Mr. Downing violated the laws then voters will know not to vote for him. It is pretty simple.

Gary, no, it's not that simple. We have a draft dodger who admitted to sexually assaulting women who was elected president. We have a guy we assaulted a reported who was elected to congress. It appears that bad behavior doesn't override party loyalty.

Can you say, Bravo Sierra?, this guy is a phony ! Answer the question, did you pay taxes as an out of state resident and then hunt as a resident? Pretty simple. All the nonsense he and his attorney are spewing is total smoke screen.

Maybe what Downing needs to do at this point is to choke out the reporter from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Then maybe slap Holly Michels around a bit for good measure. It worked for the Reverend "Thumper" Gianforte and the Rubes of Montana love that stuff.

Let's have both parties put their candidates for the Senate up on the platform during the primary and allow the voters to pick their choices. Let's have candidate forums all over Montana. That way money and TV ads will not be the deciding factor. The people will decide and not the typical powers that be.

Troy Downing articulates Montana conservative principles eloquently. Montana FW & P under Bullock dances to the tune of the liberal agenda irrespective of Montana laws. Since Constitution Convention back when Frank Dunkle ran against Forest Anderson, Mt FW & P is not biologically & motivated by integrity. Since that time, Mt. FW & P dances to the tune of Montana's Governor. Very sad, but true. Vote for Troy Downing for he wants to make Montana Great Again.

For claiming to be all knowing fact police, matt and clay sure do spread allot of manure! Especialy matt on the tax rant hes on. Of coarse the more money you pay in the bigger the break duh. It would be like you going to get a yard of concrete from pioneer when i spend 30k a month there and you expecting a better price than me for your one yard. Or are you two the only ones to lie and lie andlie on here?

I know you can barely write, and presumably speak the English language Jeremy...but I don't think you actually made a point, did you?

Something about pretending you understood the tax code or how tax breaks work? I love when guys like you actually argue for things that will do nothing but punish them to let Gianeforte buy more land bordering rivers that he never let you near if he could legally do it (oh wait - he already tried to keep you off of it anyway).

It's been well proven during the tea party days that specially the right doesn't grasp how their taxes work. This probably explains a lot about guys like you who vote for tax policy that hurts you to make the rich and big corporations richer.

Paying taxes isn't a frequent user discount genius. We all pay the exact same taxes through each area of our personal income brackets, and then if you make more you pay more. The rich are currently paying the historically lowest amount that they ever have since taxes were first applied in America. Well less than half of what they effectively paid even 30 years ago.

Under this new plan if you have to buy a new edger, float or trowel (I worked for many years in concrete too dingles) you won't be able to deduct those expense...but huge corporations still will. if your kids teacher buy school supplies - she can't deduct them, but the big companies can. If you sell your business, or asset and make a profit - you have to pay capital gains taxes on that profit...but as long as trump uses pass through companies and investment vehicles out of reach for you - he'll be able to forever avoid paying taxes on that profit, nor will his kids. If you get sick you won't be able to deduct medical expenses from your taxes but mega companies can always deduct those to make sure the shareholders get a few extra million.

And even better - if you lay brick or block for the housing industry - the new changes will directly stifle business by reducing and possibly even ending hostage deductions on new housing purchases. Good luck getting a discount on your mud when you have no new projects to work on.

This isn't a few bucks off a yard of mix genius, this is a country that's becoming set up for the 99% to toil to make the 1% even fatter and happier. You're taxes may even go up...but even if they go down even slightly you're getting the shaft because almost all of the money goes up...you're roll is to make just enough to buy things that make Trumps and his ilk massive amounts of money.

So tell me JM, how does any part of giving to the rich and big corporations help you? Does it create massive amounts of jobs? We should be awash in them for the many years the right has fought this battle to take from us to give to them. Certainly didn't help in 2007 when it cause a depression. And how about those many trillions of dollars of deficit it caused that you pretended were all Obama's fault, but were really on G. Bush? Now we're look at at least 1.7 trillion in direct deficit, plus an estimated 4-5 trillion more without a single indicator that it will be regained other than "trust me - it will work."

The ultra rich need to pay their fare share again - just like they did during our salad days before the republican innovation of making companies and mega rich family more important than the rest of us.

Clay, there are many solid conservative Montana Republicans who want the very best for Montana. Don't lump all Republicans in one pot. Voters will have a choice and they will not be fooled by folks like Downing who think power and money is the way to go. We just celebrated another anniversary of our great state from 1889. There are some other decent choices to choose to run against Senator Tester.

Gary Carlson said "Clay, there are many solid conservative Montana Republicans who want the very best for Montana."

Too many Republicans are no longer conservative. They have forsaken their principles. For example, while they eschew welfare, they have no problem receiving more in Federal dollars than we we send. They have no problem with the $900 billion Farm Bill and its handouts to the ag industry.

They harp about the evils of socialism when they oppose the Affordable Care Act while they ignore all the other government-run insurance programs. Why aren't they on a crusade to repeal the rest of those programs? Here are a few:

BTW, Gary, while I have been labeled everything from liberal to fascist to communist to socialist by some on this site, I wear no labels. One thing I do espouse is fiscal conservatism and I believe that must start with the individual. How can we expect our government to behave that way when the bulk of the population are spenders and rely on borrowing to support their lifestyle of acquiring things they cannot really afford.

I have had that position attack be so-called conservatives on this site who make all sorts of excuses for why we (they) have to live that way. I say that living debt-free is the biggest step toward ensuring one's personal liberty.

I have borrowed only once in my life. That's it. It was for a rundown house that I bought using the GI Bill. While I lived in it I did a complete rehab, doing all the work myself, and eventually sold it and used the proceeds to pay CASH for my next house. Instead of blowing what would have been house payments since then I have carefully invested and fully funding my own retirement plan so anything else I may have such as a pension or Social Security is just mad money. In the meantime I have lived frugally. My income has not been large (public school teacher) and I have always made more than my spouse, so you can tell our income has been modest. On that we have paid cash for the spouse to complete a college degree, for me to go through grad school, and put two children through college WITHOUT INCURRING DEBT, and one of them was to a rather pricey out-of-state university.

How is this possible on a modest income? It's not how much one makes, it's how much one spends and saves. Many people say that family life was better back in the "good old days" and to some extent I agree so that is how we live.

We've done without cable television and spend time together reading, working on hobby projects, playing games, and getting outside.

We prepare all our meals at home, from scratch, and eat together.

We drive old cars and maintain them. We have paid cash for every car in our our stable. I have two cars that I use. My daily driver was built when Eisenhower was president. The other when Reagan was president. The latter has over 200K on it and runs, and looks, like new. It took us on a trip to Wisconsin and back last year without incident. My spouse drives a nearly 20-year old SUV with over 200K on it. It is less expensive to maintain a car than it is to make payments on a new one.

We repair instead of replace. Items are only tossed out when that is no longer possible. Just recently a piece of home office equipment failed. It was 35 years old and a plastic gear had finally quit. The replacement cost of the equipment was about 75 dollars. The originally maker is out of business, however, I found someone on eBay who 3D prints parts and they made me a gear for $8.00, and that included shipping.

You see, it is possible to take control and I would suggest that the first step is to throw away the television. It is nothing but a time waster and it delivers about 20 minutes of commercials an hour, commercials that are psychologically designed to convince/brainwash viewers that they need, and deserve, stuff they do not have.

This kind of lifestyle goes beyond conservative principles, it just makes practical sense regardless of political philosophy. But for someone who claims to be conservative not to embrace it is hypocritical.

More winger conspiracy nuts for the rubes on the right to vote for...all he needs to do is preach that the best way to help the middle and working class folks with all of their ills is to give the rich the umpteenth round of fat tax cuts and corporate largess. Because what's more important...our welfare or happiness or theirs? it's never a question with the right...we're meant to toil so they can prosper and afford the 4 or 5th home at another country club Jack Nicholas course. Ask MOB/ELI - she loves those so-called conservatives.

Deep State might be a little far. But the FWP is not a service to the public agency. They want you to buy a license to harvest the game they think they own, then do everything to punish you when you do. No room for error at all. Their regulations, license types and boundaries are so complex, it is nearly impossible to follow them. They need to be simplified, clarified and made easier. The IRS laws seem clear cut when compared to the FWP laws, regulations, license, etc.... Time to rein them in, fix it and/or start over.

Spare me the 'Art Wittich defense' story , its just a democrat witch hunt out to get me. Residence Rules too complex , for all seven violations ? Even while he files non resident taxes. I suppose 'loaning' your elk tag out is ok . and letting his non-resident son use dads MT drivers license to purchase resident full hunting fishing license package is fine. The regs and rules are right there , in print , online and your length of residence verified when you purchase any license . So FWP is supposed to look the other way on this repeat offender ; why ? because hes rich , he spends tons of money already here, he plans to run for senator. Sorry pal , read the regs and know the rules, a large fine wont deter mr moneybags anyway , should just lose all his hunt fish priv for several years.

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